James and Margie Hursey didn't just win the early-bird prize in my Egg Hunt.

They won with flair.

The final riddle of Joe's Mildly Entertaining Easter Egg Hunt was posted on Dispatch.com about
3:30 a.m. Tuesday. At 3:43, Mr. Hursey sent 10 riddle solutions that were not only correct but also
rhyming.

Rhyming wasn't required. That's just his way.

"I have a master's degree in English," he said, "and I've written a lot of poetry."

Here's how he answered riddle No. 10:

This is the last, and we need a quick rhyme.

We have come to the end of this lark.

We think we know it, but we're pressed for time.

It's the German Village Frank Fetch Park.

Mr. Hursey, 79, had to work fast, he said: He had thought of some possible rhymes ahead of time
for No. 10, then went to work when it appeared on the Web site.

The "hausfraus" reference told him that the imaginary egg was hidden in German Village, and

some fast Googling supplied the name of the park.

Mr. Hursey, who retired in 1996 from
The Dispatch as production assistance manager, had the most trouble with No. 6 (the
Downtown YMCA), he said, but Mrs. Hursey, 70, figured it out.

"I was singing
Y.M.C.A. to him," she said.

The Egg Hunt drew about 630 entries, and about 350 of them had all 10 answers correct - or 55
percent, up from 51 percent last year.

Clearly, readers are catching on to my tricks.

The Hurseys win a $50 restaurant gift certificate for being first with 10 correct answers.

As promised, I had a random drawing to award two more $50 prizes among all the others with
perfect scores.

Those winners: Mary Wodarcyk of Grove City and the team of Zeke Shaffer and Amy Serre of
Worthington.

Wodarcyk, 77, narrowly avoided making a mistake, she said, that many other readers did: thinking
riddle No. 10 referred to Schiller Park. But the clue "pleasant two-tenths of an acre" told her
that it had to be a much smaller park.

The "scarlet span" of riddle No. 7, Serre said, had her stumped for a while, until Shaffer
recalled seeing the red bridge over Spring Street at Columbus State Community College.

I'm always amazed at the commitment that some people make to the Egg Hunt. So I'd like to
mention the other readers who, like Mr. Hursey, sent 10 correct answers before 4 a.m. Tuesday.

Four readers were three minutes behind him: Dan Olexio of Westerville, Therese Terndrup of
Columbus, Mary Matthews of Bexley and Donna Cossin of Plain City.

Just behind them came Becky Springer of Blacklick, Diana and Anthony Tambini of Columbus, Hinch
Knece of Columbus, Karl Hellstrom of Reynoldsburg, Gary Watkins of Orient, Joe Tabor of Columbus
and Phyllis Blinn of Worthington.

As usual, I will convene an Egg Hunt Court of Appeals to hear from readers who think their
answers are more correct than mine.

Many readers thought riddle No. 6, the Downtown YMCA, referred to Ohio Stadium (which was built
in the same decade). Several guessed that riddle No. 9 hinted at a fire station or fire museum.
("Fire fighters" referred to the Chicago Fire, a Columbus Crew opponent.)

But that's part of the fun.

I aim for a Goldilocks degree of difficulty: not too easy, not too hard.

Thanks to all who played.

jblundo@dispatch.com

Riddles, Solutions

No. 1

Near where dog-faced bats eat fruit
Is a place of tube and chute.
Go there to descend a coil,
Or sit and watch the sliders broil.
Egg 1's there, and it's not fa
From an Irish reservoir.

A: Sliders and tanners flock to
Zoombezi Bay, the water park adjacent to the Columbus Zoo and its exotic
creatures. O'Shaughnessy Reservoir lies nearby.

No. 2

"Airborne" work that doesn't float
In a port that holds no boat,
City symbol that one day
A mayor tried to give away -
Find the next one of our yolks
Where you find these artful strokes.

A:Brushstrokes in Flight, a sculpture by Roy Lichtenstein, is a familiar sight in
the terminal at Port Columbus airport. Former Mayor Dana Rinehart once kicked up a minor storm by
proposing that it be given to Genoa, Italy.

No. 3

Brave an autumn ghost explosion;
Go in-depth to see erosion.
Chamber of the Wyandot,
Home run takes you to the spot.
Claustrophobics say no fair,
But an egg is hidden there.

A: The
Olentangy Indian Caverns, on Home Road in southern Delaware County, are thought to
have been a gathering spot for Wyandot Indians. The caverns' Haunted Hollow show draws crowds every
October.

No. 4

Near a seven-member crew
With the power to review,
There's a big percussion tool
Sitting in a shallow pool.
The egg's right there, so, to corral it,
Just locate the giant mallet.

No. 5

Where red ink flows and steel blades flash,
And guys deliver checks for cash,
A thing that deals with surface matters
Removes the ruts and bloody spatters.
Find the egg upon this rover
That's a district's smoother-over.

A: The
Zamboni machine at Nationwide Arena keeps the ice smooth for the Columbus Blue
Jackets. But the hockey team has some financial bumps to overcome.

No. 6

The cowboy, the soldier, the Indian say:
This is a place where it's fun to play,
Acquire a six-pack or warm up the heart
In this four-letter fortress with a '24 start.
It casts a Long shadow, this egg hiding place,
With carved stone creations adorning its face.

A: The imposing Downtown
YMCA, 40 W. Long St., has been helping people get fit since 1924. That was years
before the famous song performed by the costumed Village People.

No. 7

Over the flowing streams of Spring ,
A scarlet span does safely bring
Cougars who are devotees
Of self-improvement by degrees.
You'll find the egg if you, too, dart
Across this useful piece of art.

A:Passage, the bright-red pedestrian bridge that spans Spring Street at Columbus
State Community College (team nickname: Cougars), was designed by sculptor L. Brower Hatcher as a
functional artwork.

No. 8

Elegant by all descriptions,
Revives the style of old Egyptians,
Riffs were sung by scatting throats there.
Duke and Count inflected notes there.
The little egg will pop out when you
Find this resurrected venue.

A: Duke Ellington, Count Basie and many other jazz greats have performed at the
Lincoln Theatre on E. Long Street. Completed in 1928, the Egyptian revival-style
building recently reopened after an extensive renovation.

No. 9

Union locals cheer for these
Fire fighters with bare knees,
Dressed in precious-metal hue
At a home with freeway view.
Find the egg within the yard
Where this hands-off gang works hard.

A: The gold-clad Columbus Crew, rival of the Chicago Fire and other Major League
Soccer teams, plays at
Columbus Crew Stadium, a landmark off I-71. Fans, inspired by the team's hard-hat
logo, organize into union locals.

No. 10

Pleasant two-tenths of an acre
Honoring a mover-shaker,
Parent of the pricey quarter
Where the hausfraus once kept order,
This landscaped pocket bears his name.
You can fetch the egg from same.

A:Frank Fetch Park, a verdant pocket on E. Beck Street, is named for the man
credited with launching the German Village restoration effort in 1960.